Background
by LOSE IT ALL
Summary: Students discover the murdered body of a 16 year old girl on campus, and it's her journal detailing physical and sexual abuse that leads the detectives to her brutalizer. 2/18: FIXED last chapter. FINISHED.
1. Chapter 1

BACKGROUND

Hey guys! This is my first fanfiction story in a looong time, so reviews would certainly keep the chapters moving, hint hint lol...Make some suggestions for me, all that great stuff!

SUMMARY: When a sixteen-year-old girl is found dumped in the grassy pit next to her school, the detectives believe that it is the work of a family member, especially when they learn that she had been kicked out of her home six months before.

"Wait up Kate!" Seventeen-year-old Johnson Academy senior, Dani Pachillo, called to her friend Kate Snipes. They were on their way to their internship to Johnson Elementary/Academy, as a part of their child development II class. To get there, they had to cross a large dirt pit. The pit was a skateboarder's dream, and was also where students went to smoke or dip before emerging onto the busses.

"Aww look, Kate, a puppy!" Dani called, stopping at a bunch of shrubbery. There was very little of it on the field seperating the two schools, but this was a thick bunch. "Dani! We're already late, c'mon!" Kate said angrily, walking back to where Dani had stopped over.

Dani gingerly picked the little dog up, which had been licking at something in the bushes. Kate heard Dani scream.

They both peered into the shrubbery and saw a beaten up body.

"Body was discovered at 8:35 AM by Katherine Snipes and Daniella Pachillo, AKA Kate and Dani. They believe that she went to the school, and Dani thinks that her name is Kayla, or Kaylynn, or something like that," a police officer named Rich Harlowe reported to Special Victims Unit detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson.

"You know the cause of death yet?" Olivia asked the medical examiner, Melinda Warner. Warner led the pair to the body.

The girl had brown hair and was considerably pale. She was also very overweight. "Well I can't tell for sure, they won't let me move her yet, but there's a lot of bruising. Someone did a number on this girl, both the person who murdered her and it looks like there was previous bruising, as well."

Olivia and Elliot looked at eachother. "Or the person who killed her and the one who left the previous bruising are the same," Elliot said before turning and walking away.

I know, boring right? I hate first chapters!


	2. Chapter 2

BACKGROUND CHAPTER TWO

Thanks for the reviews. I hope you guys like this chapter more!

"Name is Kayla Harrison, she's 16 and a junior at Johnson Academy," Finn informed Olivia, Elliot, John and Cragen later that day. "The school said that the number and address they have on file for Kayla has been disconnected for about two months, but when they asked Kayla about it she just said that she didn't know. Umm...one of the secretaries in the attendance office said that Kayla hadn't been in school yesterday, which was when Warner placed the estimated time of death."

"How are they going about searching for this girl's family?" Cragen asked, already anticipating the answer.

"Um...By handing the entire case over to us, since there was no recent missing persons cases with her name or description," John intervened. "They turned it over to us as soon as Warner told Elliot and Olivia that she had previous bruising."

"Okay, Finn and John, talk to Warner. She said we could talk to her in a couple of hours and it's been six," Cragen instructed. "Elliot, Liv, start looking for the Harrison family."

MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE

3:35 PM

"Her backpack was nearby," Warner said, handing it to Finn as John finished snapping on his gloves. "You know, whoever made these gloves are so blatantly sexist. What male's hands can actually fit into these?" John asked, rubbing hands together. Finn eyed him, putting up one hand to show that his hands indeed fit and had room left over. John just shrugged.

Finn dumped the contents of the backpack on a cleared table. Out spilled typical high school student belongings. There was a trigonometry book and an anatomy book, as well as two binders matching those subjects. There were also a handful of notes written by, John and Finn assumed, friends. "I guess the only thing worth taking is the notes," John said.

"I don't know. I hid things pretty well using my backpack. Just go ahead and take the whole thing," Finn told him. "What kind of stuff did you have to hide?" John asked, smirking. "None of your business," Finn shot back.

"Okay kids, let's continue," Warner said, shaking her head.

"I haven't gotten a chance to do an autopsy to to the official cause of death, but I think that she was hit so hard in one area that something internally probably caused her death, because she has extensive bruises. A lot of them were shortly before her death, but there were over a dozen in various states of healing. Whoever did this was probably particularly angry."

"Why?" Finn asked.

"Because they continued to pummel her even after they had killed her."

"Obviously she didn't come home last night, why the hell didn't anyone file a missing person's report?" Elliot demanded.

"You know that kids lie, Elliot. She could've told her family that she was going to a friend's house," Olivia told him.

They went to the address that the school had listed, to see if any neighbors knew where the family had gone.

They first double checked the former Harrison home, to no avail, then knocked on the door across the hall.

"Yes, officers?" A man around 30ish asked when he had answered. "Hi, sir, I'm Detective Elliot Stabler and this is my partner Olivia Benson. What's your name, if you don't mind us asking?"

"Um, Joe Ganglioni. Is everything alright? Is my kid okay?" He demanded.

"Oh, no Mr. Ganglioni, nothing like that. We just need to ask you a few questions. How long have you lived here?"

"Oh, thank God, just call me Joe. I've lived here...Um, since my third kid Rachel was born, so 5 years."

"Would you mind if we came in and asked you some questions about the family that used to live across the hallway?" Olivia asked.

"Um, sure, if you don't mind a big mess. This apartment is way to small for four kids," Joe said and opened the door, inviting the detectives in. The living room was scattered with toys and there were pictures all over the walls, of an older girl around Kayla's age, a boy a few years younger, the girl that must have been Rachel Ganglioni, and then a little toddler boy. "Gracie, Greg, Rachel and Rhett," Joe said proudly.

"How old is Gracie?" Olivia asked.

"16. Greg's 10. Rachel's 5. Rhett's 2."

"Did you or your wife or your kids know the Harrison family really well?" Elliot asked.

Joe made a face before continuing, "Me and my kids did. My wife left about a year ago. Hell she might have known them. We knew them well, but it was hard to. They were a weird ass family."

"How so?" Olivia inquired, taking a seat on the beat-up loveseat.

"Oh you know, normal stuff I guess. There was five or six kids, I can't remember, I think 5. Kayla, Keagan, Kevin, Kacey and Kyle. They moved in the same time we did. Kayla is Gracie's age. Keagan is 12. Kevin was...umm...10. Kyle was pretty young last time I saw him, not even a year."

"What about Kacey? And when was the last time you saw them?"

"Man it was really sad, Kacey and Kayla got into a car wreck around eight months ago, when Kayla was 15 and Kacey was 6 I think. The whole situation was really bad. Mike and Molly, those were their parents, told Kayla to go pick up Kacey from dance lessons, even though Kayla didn't even have her liscense, just her learners. It wasn't even her fault, meaning the wreck. She was on the highway when she shouldn't have been and she got hit by a truck head on. She was fine but little Kacey was killed immidiately. Her parents never forgave her. I haven't seen the family in like two months, though. And Kayla was even longer than that. I haven't seen her since a couple months after Kacey's death."

"Do you know what happened with her?"

"I don't know the full story, just rumours. I don't think her parents wanted to accept responsibility that it was their fault that the girls were on the highway in the first place. The wreck wasn't Kayla's fault, but if she was an experienced driver she could've figured out a way to swerve maybe. I don't know. BUt Kayla just went downhill. She stopped doing schoolwork. I'd see her coming in to her house drunk as hell some nights. My kid Gracie told me that she just changed. I'd hear her parents screaming at night, at her, and about how they hated her."

"Do you know anything about them moving, or why you didn't see Kayla anymore?"

"Here's the really horrible part. I don't know for sure but Gracie told me that Kayla told her that her parents kicked her out six months ago, when she was still 15. Kayla told her that she was living with friends or sometimes even teachers, I don't know though. The family moved pretty close by. Why are you guys are so interested in Kayla anyway? Did she get in serious trouble?"

"No...Kayla was murdered yesterday, Joe. Thanks a lot for your help. Call us if you think of anything," Elliot said and left a card with his number written on it.

When they had emerged from the building, they decided to go their seperate ways. Olivia took the car they had driven but Elliot told her that she would rather walk.

Elliot began walking towards the station to pick up his car. It felt good just to walk without a reason, rather than be walking to inform someone that their kid had been murdered or walking to tell a woman that her husband had been shot in the park.

"Keagan! Hey, Keagan wait up! Mom said you can't leave me! Hey, Keagan!" Elliot heard a little voice yell. "Hurry the hell up, Kevin!" He heard another voice snap.

Elliot swivveled around and saw two boys around the ages 12 and 10. Keagan couldn't be that popular of a name...

Elliot decided to follow the two boys to see where they went to, hoping that they were heading "home".


	3. Chapter 3

BACKGROUND CHAPTER 3

sorry for the lack of updates, this was spose to be my spring break but I was in TN from Sun-Tues which of course was fun but since hten I've been working, grr lol...I worked Wednesday/Friday/Sunday ALL DAY. This is my dad, I have no choice :

Elliot began following the boys. Keagan and Kevin were both walking very quickly. Elliot made sure to watch them carefully, following them but not wanting to be obvious.

Every once in awhile, Keagan would swivel around to make sure Kevin was keeping up, and every once in awhile Kevin would look around, so Elliot got a good look at them. Keagan looked a lot like Kayla, minus the extra weight. Actually, both him and Kevin were very lanky. But Keagan's hair was dark brown as Kayla's were, and with his face constantly looking as if he was nervous, he face looked like her's as well. And while Kevin wore the same anxious expression, his hair was a much lighter brown, almost blonde, and his face looked much younger than Keagan's, despite only a 2-year difference.

Elliot followed them for another block or two, a little angry that parents would let two young kids wonder around aimlessly. Then again, from what he knew of these parents and the fact that they had indirectly caused the deaths of two young girls, he didn't have high expectations.

By the time they got to their apparent destination, they were out of the main city. Elliot hadn't realized how close Johnson Academy and the neighborhood was to being where he lived, but these two boys were walking on a street only a few over from his home.

They finally started up the driveway to their home. It was a nice house, a two-story. Elliot couldn't see inside at all. He watched as the two boys went inside, hesitant, and Keagan gave Kevin a little talking, which Elliot could only hear bits and pieces "...Mom...Bad mood...Don't act up...Leave dad alone...I know you miss Kayla...Shut up...She's dead, Kevin.."

Elliot watched as they went inside. Could they already know about Kayla? Or could they be talking about the sister killed in the car wreck, Kacey?

He waited about five minutes before approaching the house, knowing that Cragen and Olivia were going to be furious with him, but wanting to get to the bottom of how a parent could simply kick out their fifteen-year-old child.

He knocked on the door a couple of times. WHen it opened, he saw that it was Keagan. "Yes, sir?" He asked.

"Hi, I'm Detective Stabler. WHat's your name, buddy?"

"Keagan."

"Well, Keagan, are your parents home?"

"Yeah, just a second," he said, walking off to find his parents. A few moments later, a woman dressed as if ready to leave to a party appeared. "Yes, Detective Stapler?" She asked in a drawling voice.

"Um...Stabler, ma'am. I have some bad news, I was wondering if I could maybe come in and talk to you and your husband?"

"Oh, sure," she said, not showing any worry over 'I have some bad news'. She led him the way to a living room, motioning for him to sit down on the love seat.

He saw a young boy, maybe preschooler's age, playing with a couple of toys next to where the lady had taken a seat.

"First off, I didn't catch your name...?" Stabler asked.

"Oh, I'm Molly. Mike! Mike, come in here, there's an officer," she called.

While they waited for her husband, Stabler looked around. There were dozens of pictures, perfectly aligned in matching or themed sets. Mostly there were pictures without Kayla, but in a couple there she was, mostly in the background. He saw a picture of all five of the kids, they all looked much younger, but it couldn't have been that long ago. He guessed the stress of losing siblings did that to you.

"Mike, this is Detective Stabler," Molly introduced them.

"Hi. What department you from?"

"Special victims unit."

"Oh. Well, what'd you have to tell us?" He asked.

Stabler reached over and picked a picture off the coffee table, of all five of the kids. "Beautiful family you have," he started.

"Yeah, but that's not what you came here for, with all due respect, Detective Stabler," Mike said through gritted teeth, almost as if he was expected something bad.

"Please, call me Elliot. These are your daughters, Kayla and -"

"Yes, those are them, I'm going to repeat myself one more time Elliot, what did you have to tell us?" Mike demanded angrily.

"Okay. I'm very very sorry to have to tell you this...But your daughter Kayla...Two students found her dead on the school's campus yesterday."

He could see both the parents' bodies stiffen, both neither showed any emotion besides Mike, who's eyes seem to glaze over before he snapped out of it. Before anyone could say anything, they heard Keagan begin to scream. "What! Kayla can be dead! What the hell, get out, you're lying! I hate you! And you two! Now you've killed both of them!" He wouldn't stop. Mike neared him and grabbed him, wrapping his mouth over Keagan's mouth.

"Look would you just get out?" He pleaded with Elliot.

"They kicked her out-" Keagan started ranting again before his father had managed to pull him into a nearby room.

"I'm very sorry for your loss, ma'am. Of course, we're going to have to talk to you and the oldest two boys...Here's the address to the medical examiner's...we're going to need you to formally ID the body."

"Oh sure...Um, we'll be there tomorrow morning, nine o'clock sharp," Molly said, the same smile still transfixed on her face. She led Elliot to the door.

She looked as if she was going to say something, but instead she shut the door as soon as Elliot had stepped out.

Elliot knew that there was something just not right about the family, especially the parents being so quick to shut their son up rather than console him. And neither appeared to be grief stricken that they had lost their second child in a year.

He began to walk home, since it was only a few streets away, when his cell phone rang. Looking at the Caller ID, he saw that it was Cragen. "Shit," he mumbled, "Stabler."

"Elliot, get your ass down here right now!"


	4. Chapter 4

Background, Chapter Four

Stabler knocked on Cragen's door. Cragen looked up, sat that it was Elliot, and his face changed to highly pissed. "Sit," Cragen said.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Cragen roared once Elliot had shut the door behind them.

"Captain-"

"No, shut up and listen! You don't go anywhere without a partner! You don't do anything without my permission! Is that understood?"

"Yes, Captain, but-"

"Olivia comes here to pick up her stuff for the evening, says that you decided to take a little stroll, and of course right away I'm thinking 'what the hell has he done now'! And two minutes later, I get a phone call that you have entered the home of this girl's family and caused their son to have an emotional breakdown? They are pissed, Elliot! You're lucky if we get anything from them! I could hear that kid screaming in the background!"

"Captain! Look, whatever they told you is probably a lie. Yes, I followed the boys home...But I broke it to them gently...I didn't just say 'Hey, your kid, yeah she's dead...' I would never do that. We need to look into them! They showed no emotion, and I just told them that their only remaning daughter has been killed. That kid knows something!"

"That doesn't give you the right to follow two children home and inform them without a partner, Elliot. If in court now, you say you suspected them because they showed no evidence, who's there to back you up? You think they're going to admit to that, if it makes them look bad?"

Elliot didn't know what else to say. "I'm sorry," he finally said. "Okay. And Elliot, don't look too far into the parents. THey seemed to get the drift that you thought that they did something. They both have rock-solid alibis for the time frame that Warner believes Kayla was murdered."

Elliot shrugged and turned to leave.

"I don't want you to ever pull this shit again, detective...I've had to save your ass one too many times."

&&& && && && && && &&

Later that night, Elliot was watching TV with the twins when the doorbell rang. All three looked at eachother expectantly. "I'll get it," Elliot said, moving towards the door.

It was Keagan Harrison.

"De-Detective Stabler?" He stuttered, wrapping himself tighter in his coat.

Elliot moved and ushered the boy into his house. "Keagan? What are you doing here? How'd you get my address?"

"It was on that card you gave my parents. They threw it away. They're not going to come identify Kayla's body. They don't care about her."

"Look, Keagan, I've got to take you home-"

"No! I'm not going back home! If you take me back I'll just leave again!"

"I can't let you hang out here...I'm already in trouble with my boss..."

"I have stuff to tell you though! My parents didn't kill Kayla-but they might as well have."

Elliot hesitated. "Look, let me take you to the station...You can spend the night there, I can call your parents, and we can all talk in the morning..."

Keagan seemed to understand that he wasn't going to get anything better so he just shrugged. "Dickie, Liz, c'mon, we're taking a little drive."

&&& && && && && && &&

When Elliot got to the station, he told Dickie and Elizabeth to stay in the car. He took Keagan into the room where he had spent too many sleepless nights when Kathy first left him, and told him that he had to call his parents. Keagan just shrugged.

Elliot told Finn and John, who were working all night on another case, to watch over Keagan, and then went to call the boy's parents.

It was around midnight, by then, so when Ms. Harrison answered, she was not happy.

"Ms. Harrison, I just wanted to tell you that Keagan is at our station, safe...He ran away, but we have him when you would like to come pick him up."

"The little fucker can stay there if he wants to pull this shit."

"Well are you still coming to identify the body tomorrow?"

"What? Yes, fine."

Elliot decided to take the opportunity to ask about Kayla's close friends. "Ms. Harrison, once last questions...Can you name off some of Kayla's friends that she goes to school with?"

"Uh..fine. Adam Brooks...Jeremy Zeffler...Angel Chambers...Steven Carr...Liz White..."

And then she hung up.

Elliot went back to Keagan.

"Look umm...Well, I'm sure your parents will come get you tomorrow. We'll talk in the morning, okay? Just get a good night's sleep...I know today has been hard for you..."

"Don't lie to me. They said to leave me here. Detective...They're going to kick me out, just like Kayla. They will do the same thing to Kevin and Kyle. Don't let them," Keagan said sleepily before he turned over and was soon asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Background, Chapter 5

Sorry for not updating ;x I haven't gotten many reviews though, so I haven't had much motivation. But I'm not the type of writer to quit just b/c I don't get a certain number...But I WOULD appreciate it :P

The next morning, Elliot arrived at the station around eight AM. He had taken Elizabeth and Dickie back home already. Olivia was already there, talking to Cragen.

"Where's Keagan?" Elliot asked immidiately.

Olivia nodded her head towards a smaller interview room, where Elliot could see Keagan eating breakfast. "He is pretty adamant about his parents not coming to get him, or anything," Olivia said worriedly. "There's something going on in that home. He refused to go home last night, and threatened to run away again..."

"Elliot, we can't just keep him him because he's a little emotionally messed up. He has to go back home. We have no reason to keep him here," Cragen pointed out.

"Just let us talk to him, please, captain. Maybe it'll give us some clues to where Kayla's been the past few months, and what happened."

Cragen silently fumed for a few moments, staring at the little boy. "You and Liv can go in there and interview him. Do not cross any lines, and I mean it. If he gets agitated, you end it, no questions asked. Understand?" Elliot nodded.

Elliot and Olivia went to the room where Keagan was still slowly eating and sipping a cup of juice. "Hey, Keagan," Olivia said, taking a seat next to Elliot and across from Keagan.

"Hi, Elliot..." Keagan said, looking questioningly at Olivia. "My name's Olivia. I'm Elliot's partner. Did you get enough to eat?" She asked when Keagan was finished.

Keagan grinned sheepishly and nodded. "I'm not suppose to eat that much, I'll get fat like Kayla," he said softly. "Keagan, you eat as much as you want," Olivia said, feeling angry for the kids in the family. The ones left, anyway.

"I'm full, really! Um, are my parents coming?" Keagan asked.

"They're suppose to be coming around nine to-to do some stuff," Elliot said slowly, not wanting to mention Kayla just yet.

"They won't be here to pick me up, or identify Kayla, so don't get your hopes up," he said matter-of-factly. He spoke more like a sixteen or seventeen-year-old rather than a twelve-year-old.

"You said you wanted to talk about some stuff, Keagan. But we don't want to push you," Elliot reminded him.

"No, I want to. Okay, my mom never wanted kids. My dad did. My dad came from a family with six kids and my mom was an only child, so she's use to being the main focus. But they ended up, obviously, having five of us. My mom has always made it very clear that she never wanted us, especially the girls. She could somewhat still be the star in the middle of a bunch of guys, but then she had Kayla and Kacey, too. She was embarassed by Kayla. Kayla's always been fat. Every day my mom called her names, told her to stop eating. And Kacey, she just basically ignored. She hated that Kayla was overweight and she hated that Kacey was tiny and pretty. She put Kacey in dance...I know this sounds bad, but I think she hoped that Kayla would wreck and something would happen to both of them. Kayla begged her not to make her drive, she knew she wasn't ready, but mom always made her. Always.

After Kacey died...My mom acted happy. She went around and got all Kacey's stuff and just sold it. She didn't let us grieve openly, we couldn't cry. My dad wandered around in a daze. I saw him hiding some of her stuff one day, I guess to have some momentos left over. Then Kayla started coming home really late, this was when we still lived in our apartment. She was drunk. My dad was begging her to quit, to come around, to quit coming home like that or mom was going to do something. So she did. My mom made me pack Kayla some clothes. I-I knew what Kayla liked...We were really close...So I put some of her stuff in there, too, like her journal and notes and pictures." Keagan stopped for a second, his eyes filled with tears.

"I was still awake when Kayla came home that night. My mom just put her stuff in the hallway and told her to never come back. That she killed her daughter. Kayla just stared, at my dad, begging him with her eyes, saying she was sorry, that she told them she couldn't drive-but my mom just slammed the door in her face. Then we moved. I haven't seen Kayla in a month. She would sometimes rush from the high school to catch me walking home from school and we would talk. She'd ask me how my brothers were doing, how dad was. SHe'd always make sure I knew that she didn't kill Kacey. That's all I know."

"Keagan, this is important, did she ever say something about anyone mistreating her? Did your parents ever hit her? Did she tell you who she was with? Did-" Elliot began firing off questions but Olivia touched his arm and mouthed 'slow down'.

"She had bruises on her sometimes. I'd ask and she'd just say they were from just being around. My parents never hit her. I mean, sometimes my mom would slap her, but it was never constantly or beatings or anything, especially not my dad. I know he probably didn't seem like it yesterday but he loved Kayla. And Kacey. I asked her who she was staying with one day and she said that she was in between places, sometimes she stayed with friends, sometimes with this teacher and sometimes...with no one..." Keagan answered, his voice cracking.

Cragen entered the room. "Keagan, your grandma is here to pick you up," he said, side stepping so the woman could enter. She rushed to Keagan, hugging him tightly. "Oh, no, Keagan, how could your mother do this to Kayla...To you...Oh, my poor babies," she cried. "I told that woman that I would take care of Kayla, of any of the kids, but she told me to mind my own business, then when I came to visit at the apartment, they were packing up and she told me that Kayla had gone off to some boarding school! I didn't believe her, but I didn't know what to do...She left without her child, and now my other granddaughter is dead," the old woman sobbed, talking more to herself than the detectives.

"This is what she does," she said, sweeping her hand across the police station, "causes death and destruction. I've been here twice in a year to identify dead children, she made me identify Kacey and now Kayla, too. She shouldn't have had kids. Don't let her do anything else!" The lady yelled, taking Keagan's hand as she walked out.

"That was the paternal grandmother. We were talking, she said a lot of what Keagan said. The mother was never very interested in their lives. She showed emotion at the funeral when it was socially acceptable to, but that very night she was clearing Kacey's stuff to make more room."

"As horrible as this woman is, she didn't kill Kayla," Olivia said. "We need to find out who Kayla has been with the past couple of months rather than the people she hasn't lived with or seen."

"Elliot, Olivia, go to the school, ask to see the friends that the mother mentioned. Look through the journal that Keagan mentioned. She had to have mentioned something to somebody-or something."

&& && && && && && &&

w00t long chapter :D Enjoy,


	6. Chapter 6

background, chapter six

THanks for the reviews :) I liked where I went with this story yesterday so I decided to update again lol. I just got back from work and I'm mad at father deary, so what better way than to write SVU? haha 33 review if you like...critique if you don't!

Elliot and Olivia arrived at Johnson Academy. The parking lot in the front was full, so they had to drive around back to the bus ramps and park in the technology and automotive class's parking spots. This was near the pit where Kayla's body had been discovered, and as they got out of the car they could see flowers, teddy bears, and various other items at the site where the girls had stumbled upon Kayla.

They walked into the school and made their way to the front office, where the principal sat them down in his office. "I was wandering if we could pull some kids out and speak to them? Kayla hasn't actually been living with her family for roughly six months, we're trying to figure out where she's been. We're hoping that this may lead to whoever did this," Olivia explained, presenting the man with a small list of friends that Molly Harrison had supplied her. "Sure, we're willing to do whatever it takes to find who did this. I only came in contact with Kayla once...With 2000 kids, we only get the disadvantage of dealing with the misbehaved. But even when she was in trouble, she seemed like a nice girl. A lot of the kids are upset."

He left to give the list to the secretary to call, telling them that he would call them one at a time and that they could use his office.

First, Adam Brooks came. He was around 5 feet, six inches, weighing about 130 pounds. A pretty small kid. He came in, looking emotionally drained.

"Adam, we know that this must be a tough time for you. Had Kayla told you where she had been staying the last few months?"

"I-I don't know. I mean, she stayed with me for like a week, about five months ago. I told my parents that hers were out of town, I don't know if they believed me. But anytime I asked Kayla about it, she would shrug me off and tell me not to worry about it. Well, at first, for the first couple of months, like the first three maybe, she would tell me she was staying at friends' houses. But after that, she got kind of weird. Withdrawn. Depressed. She'd show up with bruises and stuff. Honestly, I figured she had gone back to her parents. But then I followed her home one day and she went somewhere I didn't know. My little brother Danny is friends with KEagan, so I knew it wasn't their house, so yeah. I don't know anything else."

None of the other friends seemed to know anything either, until Liz White walked in. Liz was probaly around five feet, eight inches, and very thin. She maybe topped 115.

Liz silently sat down and pulled a composition book out of her backpack. "This is...was...Kayla's journal. She left it at my house a couple of days before she...died. It was the first time she'd been over there in 2 months. I think she left it there on purpose."

Liz was obviously in shock. Her eyes were puffy and she had tear stains on her face. She sounded emotionally drained, pausing ever so slightly when she had to refer to the fact that her friend was dead.

"Have you read it?" Elliot asked gently.

She shook her head. "I didn't realize that she might have left it on purpose until yesterday night. I would never read her journal. I still haven't. Maybe if I had-" Her voice broke and tears threatened to spill out of her eyes.

"Did she ever talk to you about where she was staying?" Olivia coaxed.

"Not really. WEll, I know some stuff but...It's probably just coincidence."

"Liz, we need to know anything weird that went on, especially recently," Olivia said sternly.

"There's this Spanish teacher, Mr. Allen. He has a tattoo of a dragon on his arm. He's kind of strange, he stands in the hallway like a soldier and just stares at everybody walking past. Someone said that he had been in prison before. Kayla never had him as a teacher, I know because we had Spanish one and Spanish two together. But she started acting weird around him. Like if we were in class and he happened to walk in for whatever reason, she would tense up and stop talking and stare at the desk. If we walked past him, she would always move to the other side of the hallway. Then she stopped eating lunch one day with us. I waited until everyone had left and kind of hid in one of the cross hallways, and I saw her go into his room. I asked her about it later and she said she needed tutoring in Spanish...Only..."

Liz kind of paused, as if unsure if she should say the rest of it. "Only what?" Elliot asked.

"I have Spanish with her. Her grade has slipped a little since all this crap had happened with her family, but Spanish has always came easy for her. She had an A, she didn't need tutoring. It was just...weird."

&& && && && &&

I hope this isn't too short. It looks long on the computer. Oh well right! lol. I'll try to keep updating, now that I have a good flow going.


	7. Chapter 7

**Background, Chapter Seven**

Sorry for the delay. I sort of forgot about this, seeing as I've only gotten eight reviews lol :P Please review

* * *

"When are we going to talk to this Mr. Allen? He did it," Olivia said. She and Elliot were sitting at their desks, with Cragen standing in between them, thumbing through Kayla's journal, which was a simple blue and black composition book.

"Well first off, you two are going to read every single thing this kid wrote in here. If you just go and start asking the guy questions, it's going to look pathetic. The only material we have is from a couple of students, neither of which has ever actually had this guy. It's not enough for Liz White to have seen Kayla walk into the class," Cragen explained, tossing the book to Elliot.

"I think Fin was doing the background check on the guy," he said, looking over the book. It had lyrics scrawled on the cover, hard to read, both for it's black marker on blue/black cover, and for the small, messy scrawl that it was written in.

Just then, Fin and Munch walked up.

"Um...Not much on this guy," Fin explained, sounding rather confused.

"What exactly is 'not much'?" Cragen demanded.

"Nothing. And not nothin' as in no previous arrests, but nothing as in no one under the name Wyatt Oliver Allen having existed in New York, at any time."

"That doesn't make...any sense," Cragen muttered, "are you sure you didn't do something wrong?"

"Well I got a little confused between typing in his name and hitting submit, but I think I managed it, captain," Munch said smugly, smiling to show Cragen that he was just kidding. Mostly, anyway.

"While I figure this out, you guys look through that journal," Cragen said, walking away.

"Talked to some teachers at the kid's school. All basically said the same thing-got good grades. Fell a little about six months ago, attendance has been a bit rocky in the past two months, but otherwise no big problems. One teacher told me she saw bruises on Kayla, reported them to the school's social worker, but doubts anything ever came through with it. This is the same school where Billy Nichols' father managed to beat him for two years before someone took the last of two dozen threats seriously, and after he was in critical condition. Umm...A male teacher of hers-her English teacher, Mr. Tomas, remarked that she's always been a little edgy as far as physical contact went, but the past few months she got even weirder about it. One time he bent over her and took her pencil to write something in the margin of a paper and she started fidgeting real bad, breathing heavy, pulling the sleeves on her sweatshirt down. He said he was scared she was going to have an anxiety attack so he stepped back," Fin read from his notes.

"There's obviously a common theme between everyone's statements. Two months ago. Something happened two months ago, and that something is why she's dead," Munch observed, tossing his notes at Olivia.

"Period one: Human Anatomy. This teacher said...Maintained B average all year. Was quiet. Six unexcused absenses in the past two months; ten excused absenses in the same two months. Period two: Honors Spanish II. Teacher has been gone for four months due to car wreck, but the substitute that has been in there for three months said good student, good grades, talks a little bit. Grade fell from hundred average to high B the last couple of months. Never asked for tutoring or anything. Period three: US History. Teacher said same thing as English teacher. She got so tense around him that he eventually stopped going over there to help. Suspected something was wrong at home, tried to talk to her once but she said everything was fine-student told teacher otherwise, and teacher reported story to counseling center. Doubts anything ever came. Period four: English. Period five: Psychology. SAme thing. Period six: Trigonometry. Maintained a C. Hovered on D mark. Stopped coming in for tutoring about-"

"...Two months ago," Munch interrupted Olivia's reading. "What did this student have to say?"

"Umm...Something about she knew Kayla's family, and knew that Kayla hadn't been at the house in a long time."

The four sat in silence, as Olivia scanned through Munch's childish handwriting. Then something stood out.

"'English teacher saw Kayla go into Allen's class at least half a dozen times, after school had let out. Saw him drop her off about a half mile away from school some mornings. He finally confronted Allen, told him if he wasn't careful people were going to spread rumors, and would he happen to know why Kayla's been so 'out of it' lately? Allen brushed Tomas off, told him he was overreacting and that the kid needed tutoring. Tomas never pursued anything else about it.'"

"Why? If it was so innocent, why drop the kid a half mile away?" Fin said, shaking his head.

* * *

Cragen shook his head. He was at his desk, in front of the best software currently availible by the federal government, and he couldn't find the name of a teacher. He had tried every single spelling possible of Wyatt Allen. The guy wasn't in there.

* * *

"The journal goes for about four months back. First entry just talks about her staying in..." Elliot stopped, "Fin, what was the name of that teacher? The one who confronted Allen?"

"Umm...Tomas."

"First name...?"

"Trey. Trey Tomas. Why?"

"The first entry in here says: 'For the past week I've been at my English teacher's house...Better than nothing, I guess. But not much.'"

"So Mr. Tomas isn't as innocent as he wants to portray," Olivia remarked with her eyebrow raised.

"This doesn't mean anything, Liv-" Elliot started but Cragen interrupted.

"First thing tomorrow someone needs to get to that school and ask them how the hell they did a background check on someone who doesn't exist," he exclaimed angrily before leaving the room once again.


	8. Chapter 8

**Background, Chapter 8**

A/N: I move out in 25 days :D It feels so weird. I started on when I was like 12 I think? It's been six years!

* * *

The next morning, Elliot and Olivia arrived at Johnson Academy just as the first bell rang. Cragen had been livid the day before, more mad than either one of them had ever seen him. He had given Elliot and Olivia the duty of inviting the teacher for a little chat back at the station, and then talking to the administration about how he got hired. Finn and Munch were to look through the journal that Kayla had left at Liz's house.

They ducked in and out of tardy students running towards their classrooms, and finally reached the office. The same secretary who had led them to Principal Underwood's office before, greeted them. "Do you know who did this yet?" She asked quietly. A picture of Kayla sat on the counter in between various papers advertising school pictures, yearbook forms, and field trips.

"No, we don't. We're getting close though," Olivia smiled at the lady. "We're here to see Mr. Underwood again. Is he in?"

"Oh, sure, you know where his office is."

They walked through the door and down a short hallway. Principal Underwood was sitting at his desk, talking to someone.

"...No, the media is not allowed on my school's property. This is a tragedy, and the students need to grieve. I don't care that other schools let you!" They heard the tail end of the conversation before he slammed the phone down.

"Oh, hey detectives. It's a media frenzy. I've caught reporters sneaking into the school just to interview a few kids who may or may not have even known Kayla. It's ridiculous," he said angrily, rubbing at his temples. "What can I help you with?"

"We'd like to speak with one of your staff, Wyatt Allen?" Olivia asked.

They saw a look pass over Underwood's face as he nodded slowly.

"Do you have anything to tell us about him?" Elliot prodded.

"Nothing important to your case, if that's what you mean," the man snapped back. "He wasn't even a teacher of hers."

"Then what was that look for?"

"Nothing. Just my personal opinion of the man."

"Which is...?"

"Which is that he's a relatively new teacher and still doesn't know his boundaries!" Underwood exclaimed angrily.

"What's that suppose to mean? How about you explain it all instead of us having to prod you like one of our four-year-olds?"

"I don't mean anything serious. I've never seen-or heard-of Wyatt doing anything inappropriate. He's a young guy, and I think he needs to learn to distance himself from his students. I've gone in there and he's been just talking to a group of two or three girls, before or after school, with the door closed. He doesn't realize the kind of accusations that could arise from that! And apparently he's lied to his students about going to prison. I mean, it makes a great story, that you can arise from your troubles, but I don't encourage lying."

"You don't find that he was talking to female students behind closed doors, suspicious? And how do you know he was lying about being in prison?"

"I told you, I find it highly inaproppriate, but like I also told you, he's a new teacher. He doens't know about the rumours that spread rapidly. ANd I know because we don't hire criminals."

"We'll see about that. Please call Mr. Allen in here," Olivia instructed.

Mr. Underwood breathed deeply before calling into Allen's class room. "Mr. Allen? Can you please come up to my office? No, don't worry, there will be a substitute there shortly."

"Do I need to leave?" He asked.

"No. We'll just need a second of his time."

"Well I guess there's no reason for me to send someone down there, then," he said, leaning back in his chair.

Olivia and Elliot exchanged a look. "If I'm not mistaken, sir, a class is suppose to be monitored at all time."

"No, you're not mistaken. I'll get someone."

He continued to sit and stare at them.

"I don't-" He started but Wyatt Allen walked into the room.

He was nearly six feet and imposing even to Olivia, though handsome. He walked with a military stance, and she saw that what Liz had thought was a dragon tattoo, was actually a military crest.

"Yes, Principal Underwood?" He asked, nodding at the detectives.

"The detectives just need a couple of words with you, Wyatt."

"Hi, Wyatt. I'm Elliot Stabler, this is my partner Olivia Benson. We're just here to request that you come down to our station after school today. Just some routine questions involving Kayla Harrison's murder."

"I suppose I really don't have a question, but I could save us all some time and point out that I don't even know Kayla Harrison. Had never seen her before the murder."

"We understand, Mr. Allen, but we'd still like to talk to you. We're just talking to everyone at the school. The case has hit a wall, and I'm sure you'd like to put her family at ease. We'll see you in a few hours?"

The pleasant smile that had been on his face since he walked in faltered a little. "I suppose I don't have a choice, now do I?" He said through gritted teeth as he left.

"Now back to you. What were you saying?" Olivia turned back to the principal.

"I don't want trouble at my school. The media is unrelenting, I have parents calling everyday demanding that more security be put up, I have even more parents calling to explain to me their child's relationship to Kayla Harrison, and how they believe they should get a break in their workload. Now I have you interrogating my staff. It's only a matter of time before this gets out."

"You invited trouble the minute you hired Wyatt Allen," Elliot said coldly, him and Olivia finally taking a seat to have a little chat with Principal Underwood.

"I told you he didn't have a record!"

"Of course he doesn't! Wyatt Allen doesn't exist in this area of New York! His name's not in any kind of database that we could find. Teachers are suppose to be in there, Underwood. How is it that this man isn't?" Olivia exclaimed, throwing copies of multiple screenshots all having various wordings of "person not found; please check spelling" errors. "All of these came from our captain's computer. He searched eleven different databases-local, state wide, and national-and no Wyatt Allen lives in this area, or even New York. How did you run a background check on a man that doesn't exist?"

Underwood stared at the papers, shaking his head. "There must be some mistake. We have to do background checks, fingerprint checks, before you hire someone."

"Who does the background checks?"

"A secretary, Keisha Berry."

"Get her in here."

Keisha walked in. It was the same secretary that had greeted the detectives. "Yes, Principal Underwood?"

"Keisha, please tell the detectives that you checked every single member of this staff. Myself, the janitors, any gardeners, any and all teachers. Tell them."

"Of course. You have to," she mumbled, looking down at the floor.

"You did Wyatt Allen's background check?" Olivia asked.

"If he's a teacher here, then I did his check!" She snapped defensively.

"Maybe you can explain this to us: Wyatt Allen doesn't exist."

Keisha started fidgeting. "I don't know. Okay, I don't know! I did all the background checks."

"Keisha, please, tell the detectives the truth. This is a part of the investigation," Underwood explained.

She was silent for a moment.

"His name didn't come up," she said quietly.

"Excuse me?" Elliot, Olivia and Underwood exclaimed.

"I entered it, and he didn't come up. I took him out of his class one day, confronted him about it, just playing around, asking him how he could be dumb enough to spell his name wrong. He got angry and told me to drop it. I told him I couldn't, that I'd have to tell the authorities. He paid me to keep it quiet." She explained.

"Keisha...How could you do this?"

"I needed the money! I have two kids and I don't want them going to an inner-city school and getting on the wrong road like I did! I have to pay half of their tuition out of my pocket, and with that there's barely any money left to cover the food and rent and...I wasn't thinking, I know that! I wasn't thinking that he could have something to hide. I just thought...I don't know."

"Keisha, you may have caused a predator to work among these kids. You just better hope that he has nothing to do with this child's murder," Olivia said angrily.

"Wait a minute-you pulled him out of class? He was teaching before a background check was even attempted?" Elliot intervened.

"We're given up to a month into the year to complete the checks. I have to run background checks on over a hundred individuals, by myself."

"A month," Elliot said quietly, thinking of his own kids. "A month is not a long time for a trained pedophile to befriend and betray a kid."

"I don't make the rules!"

"Get out of here, Keisha. Now," Underwood demanded. After she had left, he said, "I had no idea. I assumed that it was ran. God, I had no idea!"

"Thanks for your time, Principal underwood," Olivia said adn they walked out.


	9. Chapter 9

**Background, Chapter Nine**

**A/N**: I suck at updating :( I'm sorry! Feel good, though. It's 1 AM and I'm definitely delaying writing an English and government paper. And yes, I've stocked up on energy drinks and caffeine-filled Ice Breakers! This chapter is very dialogue-heavy.

* * *

"Basically, for the first two months of this, Kayla talked about being bounced from place to place. From that teacher's, which she doesn't say much about other than what we read earlier. She said she left after a week and a half because she didn't want him getting in trouble. She told him originally that she needed a place to stay while her parents were out of town to stay with her grandmother to help deal with the grief of the other girl's death. After she left, she told him they came back early. Hmm...Stayed at Adam Brooks' house like he said, Liz's house for a couple of days at a time every couple of weeks, benches in the park, various other places," Finn explained to Cragen, Elliot and Olivia about thirty minutes before Allen was scheduled to arrive.

"Okay, so this English teacher. Any suspicions on him?" Cragen asked.

"I didn't get that kind of vibe from him. He seemed genuinely upset that Kayla was dead," Elliot offered.

"Yeah, but why not mention that he had let her stay with him for a week?" Olivia pointed out. "Not mentioning it has to point to some kind of guilty conscience."

"He knew how it would look. I guarantee you if we confronted him about it and didn't say anything about having proof, he'd admit to it. Of course he feels guilty. Maybe he realizes he could have saved her had he reported the situation to D-FACS. There's no reason for her to lie in her journal; had anything happened she would have written about it."

"I still think it needs to be looked into a bit more. Go on," Cragen instructed, nodding at Munch.

"Two months ago, she was walking in the rain, trying to decide where to go when Allen pulled up beside her. He offered her a ride. She said after a few days of him seeing her walking in the rain, and giving her rides to a few different friends' houses, he asked what the deal was. She broke down and told him everything and he offered her a place to stay, originally just for a couple of days and then he was going to take her to the police. Apparently he was really nice and it was going good and she asked him if she could continue living there-that she would do 'anything'-clean, help pay. She didn't want to go to the police because she didn't want her brothers to be taken away or anything like that. He agreed. After a few days, everything started going down hill."

Cragen took a picture of Allen and Tomas and put them under "suspect" headers, under a picture of Kayla.

"Allen should be here any minute. Don't tell him about the journal. Start reading it a little bit at a time if he continues to deny. Munch, Finn, go see Mr. Tomas at his house. I'll call Casey and ask her to start preparing a warrant for Allen's house."

* * *

Allen walked in with a smug grin. "I hate it when they do that," Olivia remarked.

"What?" Elliot asked, beckoning Allen to come towards them.

"Come in with that smirk. But, we're about to wipe it off. So that'll keep from me from wanting to bitch slap it off right now."

Elliot led Allen in, motioning for him to have a seat.

"I hope I don't have to be here long, detectives. I have things to do," Allen said, pretending to be bored.

"Don't tell us. You have another underage girl you're ready to beat at your home? Am I right?" Olivia asked, crossing her arms across her chest. The guy's smug look still hadn't faltered.

"Now, now. Let's not accuse teachers of such things. What exactly am I here for? Like I said, I'd never heard of this girl before she was killed."

"That's funny. We have three witnesses who saw her going to your classroom multiple times," Elliot produced a sheet with the names of Mr. Tomas, Liz and Adam marked out.

"Tutoring, maybe? I tutor dozens of kids a week; a lot of them not mine since I'm the only second level teacher there right now. I wouldn't recognize her."

"'Kayla hadn't been coming to lunch so I followed her one day and saw her going into Mr. Allen's room and close the door.'"

"You got me. I sacrifice my lunch time-a time when I get to socialize with people who aren't oozing with self-righteousness little brats-to help tutor kids who can't stay after school. Damn me!" Allen knocked on the table before motioning for them to continue.

"Most teachers don't actually refer to their students in that way. So how often did you skip lunch to, hmm, tutor students?" Elliot asked.

"I don't keep track. And by the way," Allen leaned in and winked, "is it really a bad thing that I got Kayla to skip a lunch? I mean..." he blew up his cheeks and rubbed his stomach.

Elliot glared at him. "Do you think this is a game? A teenage girl was beaten to death, and you're making jokes? You're really innocent. Oh, and by the way, what'd you go to prison for? And, while we're coming clean, what's your real name?"

Olivia, who was letting Elliot take this one as she jotted down notes, noticed that Allen grew slightly stiff.

"Prison? Real name? You guys are getting a little too creative. And while WE are at it, why exactly aren't you interviewing this kid's parents? If her home life was oh so bad, you'd think her parents might have had something to do with it."

"How'd you know that? You don't know Kayla, in case you forgot."

"The media!" He snapped.

"The media hasn't released any information about Kayla's background because no one knew about it," Olivia pointed out.

"Are we done here? I didn't do anything to this kid, I've never gone to prison, and my name is indeed Wyatt," he stood up just as Cragen entered and asked Olivia and Elliot to join him in the hallway, requesting that Allen sit tight and gave him a soda to drink.

"Melinda just called, she finished the autopsy. She found something interesting."

"What? Did something else kill her?" Olivia asked.

"No. She was definitely beaten to death. But she was also about six weeks pregnant. We need to stall long enough to get that can from Allen, get the fingerprints, and run them to find out who he really is. Also, get his gum so we can get DNA."

* * *

Finn and Munch arrived at Tomas' townhouse, not that far from where Kayla's family had moved to.

"Yes?" He answered the door after a swift knock from Finn.

"Trey Tomas? We're Detective John Munch and Detective...Finn. We have a few more questions for you about Kayla."

Trey moved out of the doorway to let them enter. His home was a mish-mash of furniture with an exercise bike planted in front of the TV, which was turned to the news.

"Um, have a seat. Would you like anything to drink?" Trey asked, obviously nervous. The pair declined the drink but sat, and Munch took out his notepad.

"Do you have anything to add about Wyatt Allen?" Finn asked first.

Trey thought for a moment before shrugging. "Just the stuff I told the other two. I warned him, told him that's now rumors got started. He just laughed and told me to mind my own business. Other than that, no. I tried to stay clear of him. I always got a bad feeling from him."

"Like what?"

"I don't know how to explain it. Just how his students talked about him. I try to get close with my students, in an appropriate manner...So they know I'm there if they need to talk. He tried too much to be there friend, talking to a few of them after class about sex, and his youth. Which is okay to a certain extent, but not to where you make them feel uncomfortable. No one ever stayed after twice. I thought he was inappropriate. No one ever accused him of anything, but I didn't think it'd be too long."

"Do you think he had anything to do with Kayla's death?"

He shrugged. "Honestly, I can't say. I don't like him, but I don't see him murdering a child. Especially how people were saying she was...Beaten up so badly. Then again, I don't see how anyone could murder a kid, so...I will say that the thought has crossed my mind."

"What about your relationship with Kayla? Was it always appropriate?" Munch asked.

"What 'relationship'? She was my student. Once she stayed after and seemed to want to say something, a few weeks ago in fact, but I was dealing with something else and she left."

"I don't think that's all."

Tomas looked at them for a little while before looking away. "I let her stay here. For a little over a week. She told me her parents would be gone."

"How'd she approach you? And why didn't you say something before?"

"She seemed real embarrassed about it, but now that I think about it, I guess she had slept outside by that time. She was waiting outside my door one day when I got home from the school. Said her other plans fell through, and that she would understand if I said no. I couldn't just let her go wondering around Manhattan streets at night. So I said yes. But nothing was ever inappropriate about it. I let her sleep in my bed the first couple of nights and I slept on the couch before she insisted that she take the couch. I made sure she did her homework. I signed a field trip sheet for her. Over the weekend I had to go visit some family member and she stayed and just cleaned up a little bit. She was embarrassed about it all. I told her she could stay for as long as she needed, then one morning I got up and she was gone. I asked her about it at school and she said she didn't want me getting in trouble. I didn't say anything about it because I knew how it would look! Here I am, accusing Wyatt of being inappropriate and I let a student stay with me," He was visibly upset. "I knew something was wrong but I did nothing about it. I tried turning it into social services twice after I saw bruises on her and they turned a blind eye. I loved Kayla, the way a brother loves a sister or a father a daughter, not the sick way that Wyatt acts. Please. Believe me. I would never hurt a kid."

Munch and Finn exchanged a brief look before rising. "Look, we believe you. But do understand that we might have to call you to the station for more questioning."

Trey barely nodded. He led them to the door and as they walked out he pled his case once again. "I wish to God I had pushed the social worker harder. I wish I had realized at once that it wasn't a little spat between a teenager and her parents. I wish I had confronted Wyatt harsher, followed Kayla, gotten her to open up to me. I regret this all. I might not continue teaching. This has ruined me."


	10. Chapter 10

**Background, Chapter ten**

**A/N**: wow, it's been two years for this story. I'm wrapping it up, though! I got bored in bio and planned the rest of this one out, plus my next one. review!

* * *

The four met back up at the station, where Novak had also arrived. Cragen was talking to her about drawing up a warrant.

"We're about to have his DNA, he just threw out his gum. We have eyewitnesses from friends and a teacher saying that she was alone with him at the school, that she changed two months ago when she started living with him. We have her journal where she details abuse, physical and sexual. Any idiot can see that he did it," Cragen explained to Novak when she asked about his evidence.

"This is one time where I might not have to break the law to get you guys a warrant," she said cautiously, flipping out her cell phone. She turned her back to them as they talked amongst themselves.

"Trey Tomas had nothing to do with it. He feels really bad about what all has happened, but he did try to report her case. Social services never really followed up on it," Munch reported his and Finn's meeting with the teacher.

"And our news is that Kayla was pregnant-six weeks. She probably just found out and that triggered Allen to kill her," Olivia pointed out. "As soon as we get his DNA over there, Warner is going to test the fetus' DNA."

"Well, I also gave him a soda. I'm hoping that we can find out his real name if we scan his prints. And we obviously have enough to keep him. Someone go in there and get the trash can and soda can. I think he's too arrogant to even realize that we could have him," Cragen ordered.

Stabler strolled into the interrogation room where Allen had his head on the table and was sleeping quite soundly. Stabler rolled his eyes and went to the other end of the table, yanking it back. Allen shot up, startled. "The fuck was that for?"

"I don't know," Stabler said, grabbing the trash can, grinning at the empty soda can and wad of chewed gum.

"When can I go?" Allen said, obviously starting to get agitated.

"Well. We're about to have a warrant to your place. I'm sure with whatever we find there, and after we test the DNA found on Kayla, and the DNA taken from her fetus, will be enough to make you stay with us for a long, long while."

"You guys are getting better at this story. I never touched that fat bitch. I could have anyone and you think I'd choose a student? An ugly student?"

Elliot eyed him, recalling a specific entry in her journal. "He told me that even if I did tell, no one would believe me. Because I'm disgusting, and ugly, and no one would believe that someone like him would do that with someone like me. And he's right. I'm stuck. I can leave and he'll find me and kill me. I can stay and...the same thing. I have no way out. I hate this, I hate him, I hate it all. I hate coming here just to be punched and kicked, I hate going to sleep never knowing when he's going to wake me up and make me." It was written a week before her death.

"You're a disgusting piece of shit," Elliot started, walking until he was an inch away from Allen. Allen simply smirked. "And I can't wait until I can wipe that smirk off your face and get justice for that little girl."

"Little? Are we talking about the same girl?"

Elliot grabbed the collar of Allen's shirt. "Keep laughing. Keep smirking. In a few months you'll be on trial, and I hope they kill your us. If not death then I hope your ass is kept in gen pop. I'm sure there will be quite a few people who can't wait to take care of you."

Allen rolled his eyes and Elliot let him go and left.

"Casey will meet you at his apartment with the warrant. Munch and Finn, go, Elliot and Olivia, take the can and gum back to Warner," Cragen instructed once Elliot had joined them again.

* * *

After Elliot and Olivia dropped by at Warner's office-she promised to have the information within the hour-they drove over to the apartment, where Finn and Munch were already combing through stuff, along with a couple of other officers.

"He either cleaned up or she didn't have much with her. All we really have left is his drawers in his dresser and the bathroom," Finn told them, taking off his gloves.

"Nothing has been found?" Olivia asked, disappointed.

"Not nothing, just not much. There was blood on the sheets, so they were bagged. A shirt that we believe is Kayla's. A school book belonging to her. Nothing smoking gun, I guess until we find out who's blood that is and if there's any other fluids," Finn told them.

"Add pregnancy test to the list," Munch said, coming out with a used test in a plastic bag, and something else in his hand.

"As well as a three-thousand dollar check from...Michael Harrison."

"Michael Harrison? That's-" Olivia started but Elliot interrupted, "Kayla's father."

The four stared at each other, wondering what to make of the new twist, when Olivia's phone sounded.

"It's Warner," she said.

"Hey, Olivia. I have the tests in front of me. You're really not going to believe this."


	11. Chapter 11

**Background, Chapter 11**

**A/N:** Wow, a lot of reviews for last chapter :D Thanks!!! This is the last chapter for this story. It's been like 2 years in the making, haha. But, I really like it, I think it's my favorite of my SVU stories so far. Please review. I'll have a chapter up soon of my latest SVU story soon. I decided to split this into 2 chapters, so the second part is much shorter.

* * *

Elliot and Olivia hurried over to Warner's. Finn and Munch were on their way back to the station and Cragen was supposed to be working on finding out who exactly was sitting in their interrogation room. 

When Elliot and Liv walked into Warner's office, they saw two pictures hanging up. Melinda was drying her hands and then walked over to the pictures, pointing to the first. "This is Kayla's," she said, then pointed to the second. "This is the fetus' DNA."

It didn't take a medical examiner's license to observe that there was way too much similar within the two pictures.

"Her father," Olivia exclaimed, her and Elliot exchanging surprised looks.

"Are you sure? It's not just her father-"

"Neither of her brothers are old enough. And we found a check from her father to the guy she was staying with-who was abusing her," Elliot explained to Melinda.

"Okay. Well, I can also connect Wyatt Allen or whoever the hell he is to this. There was skin under her fingernails that I matched to him, and fluids from the rape kit."

"Thanks, Melinda."

Back at the station, Elliot and Olivia nearly walked into Cragen. "We have news," Olivia told him just as Cragen held up a folder with Wyatt Allan's picture paper-clipped to the front.

"You first," Cragen said.

"Melinda already found out who the father of Kayla's baby was. Her father. We also found a three-thousand dollar check in Allen's apartment, written from Michael Harrison," Elliot explained.

"Finn also said that when you guys left they found a gun. They called in the serial number and found out it was registered to a Michael P. Harrison," Cragen informed them.

"Bastard hired Allen to kill his daughter," Olivia shook her head. "What's your news?"

"'Wyatt Allen' is 'Garrett Chambers' and there's a reason he didn't want his prints scanned," Cragen handed them the folder. In it was a detailed list of Garrett Chambers' crimes, ranging from sexual assault to battery to statutory rape. He had at least three sex-related offenses, all against teenage girls around Kayla's age.

"I have to wonder if he ever planned on letting Kayla leave alive. I think he wanted it like that because he's been caught so often. I also have to wonder if he didn't target her because of her weight-he knew she'd be easily controlled," Elliot told them, leaning against the wall in thought. "We read her journal. He tortured her with remarks about her appearance. He told her more than once that no one would believe her because he wouldn't want to have sex with a 'fat cow'."

"I just can't believe her father would do that. He seemed genuinely shocked..." Olivia trailed off. The entire case baffled her-how a school system could allow a predator to teach, or how it seemed like so many people knew what was going on and did little to stop it.

"I don't know. There's a lot of things we don't know, so go in there and confront Garrett Chambers. Finn is calling Michael to bring him in here. He thinks it's just to ask about personal effects...If we had told him, he has the connections to be out of the country in a few hours," Cragen told them, handing them the gun in a Ziploc bag, as well as a photocopy of Michael's check to Garrett.

* * *

When the pair walked into the interrogation room, Garrett was calmly sipping on another can of soda. 

"Garrett, are you ready to go?" Elliot asked.

"Finally. As long as-" He started but realized what Elliot had said and narrowed his eyes.

"Who the hell is Garrett?"

Olivia flung the file onto the table in front of him. "You are. You thought you were clever, scaring a mother concerned about her children's future. Good thing that you didn't threaten OUR vulnerable lab tech."

"My name isn't Garrett. And I didn't threaten anyone. Not a mother, not fucking Kayla Harrison. No one!" He was getting nervous, and keeping his eyes averted from the folder in front of him.

"See, though, there's a problem in your claim. That picture? That's you. That prison number? Matched up to your name, Garrett Chambers, which matched up to the prints that Wyatt Allen left on a soda can," Olivia explained, sitting in a chair next to him and flipping open the folder. "Sexual assault against a sixteen-year-old girl. Reported you immediately, despite your threat to...murder her baby. Statutory rape against a fifteen-year-old girl, who claimed it was consensual, but after the trial admitted to several people that it indeed wasn't. Double jeopardy is a bitch. I could go on and on but we'll just get to the point: you're a disgusting pervert who likes to pray on teen girls in tough situations. Your first victim was your neighbor who you knew had just had a baby and was abused by her father. Your second victim you knew was depressed. Your third victim was a fifteen-year-old girl you had seen been verbally abused by her father. And then Kayla. You knew she had no place to live. You might've even known that her mother may have physically abused her," Elliot said, inching closer and closer to Garrett.

"My only question, is why Kayla Harrison's father sent you a check within two days of you purchasing a pregnancy test. And why a gun registered to him was found in your apartment. And your alias is mentioned several times in the journal of the dead girl you deny ever have talking to. And! Your DNA was found on Kayla's body."

They could begin to see Garrett realize that he might be caught.

"Look, I don't know. I didn't sleep with any teen girls, they were all fucking lying, and as for Kayla, hell no. What the hell IS this?" He stood up angrily.

"You didn't sleep with them you raped them! And you forced one to stay with you so you could do whatever the hell you wanted for two months. Do you feel like a real man, Garrett? Knowing that you had to beat and rape a child just to stay?"

"Fuck you!" He threw his chair down and shoved Elliot. "And fuck Kayla! Worthless bitch just like all of them. I didn't threaten any of them. Kayla was desperate for any kind of affection. I never had to threaten her!"

Elliot shoved him back down. "You threatened her, and you beat her, and you raped her, and you beat her until you finally killed her. You're going to prison forever this time. You're the worthless one."

Elliot and Olivia left Garrett on the floor. He was obviously seething. He grabbed the folder and threw it across the room.

"I think we got as close to a confession as we're going to get out of him," Olivia told Cragen.

"Yeah. And Michael Garrison is here. Ready for round two?"


	12. Chapter 11, part 2

**Background, Chapter 11, part 2 **

**  
**

This time, Elliot and Olivia had an additional piece of evidence: the pregnancy test found in Chambers' trash.

Unlike Garrett, Michael Harrison looked extremely nervous as soon as the detectives walked in with the check, gun and test.

"Detectives, is there anything you need? We're trying to-" he started but Olivia interrupted. "I hope plan your daughter's funeral but somehow I doubt that's your answer seeing as you've yet to make claim on her body."

He blushed. "We've had this vacation planned for awhile...Can't cancel and we figure it'd take the boys' minds off of what's happened."

"We're sure you thought long and hard about it. Anyways, we just have some news about Kayla. Did you know she was pregnant?" Elliot asked.

"What? No, of course not...It's that bastard teacher, isn't it? I knew he wasn't right!" He exclaimed.

Elliot and Olivia stared at him.

"I don't remember discussing anything about a teacher with you, Mr. Harrison," Elliot pointed out.

Michael paused. "Sure you did. Back at my house."

"No, no I didn't...When I was at your house we didn't know anything yet. And I obviously haven't talked with you since seeing as you were never interested in finding out even what killed your daughter...Let alone who."

Michael put his face in his hands, and then ran them through his hair.

"Look, maybe I heard it from somewhere-I don't know..."

"Okay, we're going to skip right through you claiming to have nothing to do with all of this because we've spent the last few hours dealing with a psychopath, so let's just move on. This is the gun registered under your name. This is a check written by you. This is your daughter's pregnancy test. All found in the apartment of the man who just admitted to abusing her for two months before murdering her. We've already matched your DNA to her fetus'," Elliot explained slowly, throwing each item onto the table as he explained it.

"You're wrong. Not my gun. I never wrote him a check. Why-why would I write him a check? I didn't know where she was-I, she...I hadn't seen her in six months..."

"Except that doesn't make sense because you somehow impregnated her. I'm not quite sure why you wrote him a check, but I'm going to take a wild guess and figure that Kayla told you she was pregnant and you weren't about to let her ruin all that you've built up. You knew she was being mistreated at wherever she was staying. So you followed her after you found out. You knew that whoever was already beating her up wouldn't have any kind of issue with killing her. Obviously you knew he was a teacher, so three thousand dollars seemed a pretty sweet deal to him-kill the one person who could destroy his whole life if she ever told what was going on, and get money out of it."

"Just shut up! You don't understand anything about what happened!"

"So tell us, Michael," Olivia said.

"You don't know how hard it is to lose a child. My son probably told you that we sent Kayla to drive that day on purpose but-that's no where near the truth. I don't know if my wife did. I didn't, though. When my daughter died, I felt like my life had stopped. Then Kayla started acting out and I tried my best to get her to straighten out but all's she did was go out and get drunk. My wife kicked her out and I did my best to keep tabs on her for a little while but she wanted nothing to do with me. I felt so bad I...started drinking, too. I was out walking one night after drinking for two, three hours straight when she saw me. It was so late, and her nose was bloody and she had a black eye. We went to my office...I have a key to every office under my boss' name. She told me what was going on with that Wyatt guy and the next thing I knew, I was standing over her, pulling my pants back up and she was on the ground hysterical and crying. I ran out and threw up and ran home. A month later she shows up, tells me she's pregnant and that she hated me. I did follow her, and I did tell him that I wanted her dead. I gave him the gun and told him that after he killed her I'd give him the check," he was crying now, hanging his head down.

"So you felt so guilty about what you did that, instead of manning up and admitting what you did, you put your daughter's life in the hands of someone you knew was abusing her," Olivia stated quietly.

"I only wanted her to dead because I knew it would ruin her life! Having a kid with me, living with him, having no where to go! It was for her! That's why I gave him the gun, to make it quick."

Elliot shot up. "No, it was for you you sick bastard. You couldn't stand the thought of being labelled a rapist. And by the way," Elliot neared the door and Olivia followed him. "Your daughter wasn't shot. Why would Wyatt let her have a quick death when he could rape her and then slowly beat her to death instead? He beat her until she was nearly dead, then drove to the school and dragged her to that bush and pummelled her until she was dead. Then kept punching and kicking her even after she had given up after two months of torture. You and Garrett Harrison aren't any different, by the way."

So I thoroughly hope that you guys liked this story. Make sure you review!


End file.
